Green pope says save Amazon

Addressing 40,000 young people in Brazil, Pope Benedict has called for
"greater commitment" to fighting environmental devastation in the
Amazon basin that threatens indigenous peoples in the region.

"The
devastation of the environment in the Amazon basin and the threats
against the human dignity of peoples living within that region call for
greater commitment," Pope Benedict told a stadium fullo of enthusiastic
young Brazilians, Catholic News reports.

"Stretching out
in front of you, my dear friends, is a life that all of us hope will be
long; yet it is only one life, it is unique; do not let it pass in
vain; do not squander it," the pope said.

"Live it with enthusiasm and with joy, but most of all with a sense of responsibility," he said.

About
40,000 young people crowded into the Paulo Machado de Carvalho soccer
stadium for the papal encounter, and others spilled out into the
Pacaembu neighborhood of Sao Paulo. Many arrived hours before the event.

The
papal program included a song calling for protection of the environment
and an end to burning and killing in the Amazon region. As the music
rang out, video projections of threatened Amazon species were shown on
a giant screen.

Young men and women from various areas of the country performed rhythmic dances that reflected their local cultures.

When
people see the beauty of creation, the pope said in his address, "it is
impossible not to believe in God." He said Brazilians' desire to
protect the country's natural environment, especially the vast forests
of the Amazon region, reflects this awareness of the creator.

"The
devastation of the environment in the Amazon basin and the threats
against the human dignity of peoples living within that region call for
greater commitment," he said.

God's commandments are important, the pope said, and it is even more important to witness them in daily life.

Ecological conversion call

Meanwhile,
in New York, the Holy See nuncio to the United Nations, Archbishop
Celestino Migliore, told the international body that "the world needs
an ecological conversion".

"The environmental consequences of
our economic activity are now among the world's highest priorities,"
Archbishop Migliore told delegates.

The world's 'economy
continues to rest basically upon its relation to nature", and in
particular to its impact on the earth's soil, water and climate, the
archbishop said.

"It is becoming rapidly ever clearer that if
these, the world's life support systems, are spoiled or destroyed
irreparably, there will be no viable economy for any of us," the
apostolic nuncio said.

He criticised the tendency of national
policy makers to view ecological issues as "external or marginal" to
economic considerations.

"Environmental concerns have to be
understood," the archbishop said, "as the basis upon which all economic
- and even human - activity rests."

"The environmental question
is not only an important ethical and scientific problem," he said, but
one that impacts political, economic, security strategy, developmental
and humanitarian issues at regional, national and international levels.

He
added that the Holy See favours efforts at making the Kyoto Protocol
fully strategies that meet "short and long-term energy needs, protect
human health and the environment, and establish precise commitments
that will effectively confront the problem of climate change."

The
Kyoto Protocol, ratified by more than 160 countries not including the
United States and Australia, commits nations to reduce their emissions
of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.

Rancher on trial for Amazon martyr murder

In another story, the International Herald Tribune
reports that a rancher goes to trial today for the killing of an
American-born nun, Sr Dorothy Stang, a rare instance in which Brazil's
courts take on a member of the elite in the violent Amazon region.

Vitalmiro
Bastos Moura is one of two ranchers accused of ordering the 2005
killing of 73-year-old Sr Stang, a naturalised Brazilian originally
from Dayton, Ohio. She was slain by six bullets at close range on a
muddy patch of road deep in Para state in a dispute over land.

Three
men - the gunman, his accomplice and an intermediary - have been
convicted in Stang's death, but Moura is the first alleged "mandante"
(mastermind) to stand trial.